DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The planning and logistics of taking the NASCAR Cup Series to Mexico City is a bit more complicated than staging a typical NASCAR event in the United States.
On June 15, the NASCAR Cup Series will go international for the first time during a weekend that also includes races in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Mexico Series.
According to Rodrigo Sanchez, director of marketing, media & PR for Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, the logistics of staging the NASCAR weekend are similar to those required for Formula 1, which is scheduled to race at the venue Oct. 24-26.
“I would say the size, the magnitude, is very comparable,” Sanchez said. “Obviously, just bringing 200 haulers over the border into Mexico City is a logistical thing, for sure. We’ve been working closely with our race operations team just to get down there safely and in time and then back out for the next event. That alone is just a big, big piece.
“We’re working with the same company we use for F1, which is Rock-It Cargo. We’ve been using them for the last 10 years. They’re very experienced in logistics, security and all that stuff. We don’t foresee any issues.”
The NASCAR haulers are likely to head directly to Mexico from the preceding races at Michigan International Speedway, according to Ben Kennedy, NASCAR executive vice president and chief venue and racing innovations officer.
“We’ll have a location where they’ll be able to transfer a lot of their equipment,” Kennedy said. “A lot of them will probably use different cars when they go down to Mexico City, so they’ll have a spot on the way to Laredo where they can stop and make that change—similar to what we do on the West Coast Swing—before they start heading south.
“That’s been a big part of the planning. They’re going to have to get the Xfinity haulers there (at the drop-off point) probably on Monday and Cup on Tuesday to be able to start leaving and beginning that convoy down. We start to unload Thursday and Friday, seeing that we’re going to have practice and qualifying through the weekend, too.”
The 15-turn road course at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez will be similar to the circuit used by F1. Sanchez said more than 40,000 fans already have pre-registered through the nascarmexico.com website for tickets, which go on sale to the general public on Feb. 27. The current seating capacity of the venue is 80,000.
Source: Reid Spencer | NASCAR Wire Service
